Real impossible worlds : the bounds of possibility
View/ Open
Date
25/06/2010Author
Keywords
Metadata
Show full item recordAltmetrics Handle Statistics
Abstract
Lewisian Genuine Realism (GR) about possible worlds is often deemed unable to accommodate impossible worlds and reap the benefits that these bestow to rival theories. This thesis explores two alternative extensions of GR into the terrain of impossible worlds.
It is divided in six chapters. Chapter I outlines Lewis’ theory, the motivations for
impossible worlds, and the central problem that such worlds present for GR: How can GR
even understand the notion of an impossible world, given Lewis’ reductive theoretical
framework? Since the desideratum is to incorporate impossible worlds into GR without
compromising Lewis’ reductive analysis of modality, Chapter II defends that analysis
against (old and new) objections. The rest of the thesis is devoted to incorporating
impossible worlds into GR. Chapter III explores GR-friendly impossible worlds in the
form of set-theoretic constructions out of genuine possibilia. Then, Chapters IV-VI
venture into concrete impossible worlds. Chapter IV addresses Lewis’ objection against
such worlds, to the effect that contradictions true at impossible worlds amount to true contradictions tout court. I argue that even if so, the relevant contradictions are only ever about the non-actual, and that Lewis’ argument relies on a premise that cannot be nonquestion-
beggingly upheld in the face of genuine impossible worlds in any case. Chapter
V proposes that Lewis’ reductive analysis can be preserved, even in the face of genuine
impossibilia, if we differentiate the impossible from the possible by means of accessibility relations, understood non-modally in terms of similarity. Finally, Chapter VI counters objections to the effect that there are certain impossibilities, formulated in Lewis’ theoretical language, which genuine impossibilia should, but cannot, represent. I conclude that Genuine Realism is still very much in the running when the discussion turns to impossible worlds.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Collections
Except where otherwise noted within the work, this item's licence for re-use is described as Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Modal Meinongianism : conceiving the impossible
Berto, Franz (Springer, 2020-01-02) - Book itemModal Meinongianism—the version of Meinongianism invented by Graham Priest—presupposes that we can think about absolute impossibilities. I defend the view that we can, by tidying up a couple of loose ends in Priest’s ... -
Impossible worlds and the logic of imagination
Berto, Francesco (2017-12) - Journal articleI want to model a finite, fallible cognitive agent who imagines that p in the sense of mentally representing a scenario—a configuration of objects and properties—correctly described by p. I propose to capture imagination, ... -
Impossible worlds
Berto, Francesco; Jago, Mark (Oxford University Press, 2019-06-13) - BookThe latter half of the twentieth century witnessed an ‘intensional revolution’, a great collective effort to analyse notions which are absolutely fundamental to our understanding of the world and of ourselves—from meaning ...